Video Recap: The Napa Valley Marathon Expo

Hi Guys!

Today I am sharing a video recap of my experience at the Napa Valley Marathon Expo. This was one of the most fun expos I have been too, with a laid back feel and plenty of space for runners to relax before race day.

Which race expo has been your favorite? Leave a comment to let me know which ones I need to check out in the future!

Race Recap: 2019 Disney Princess Half Marathon- Arrival and the Expo

I thought I had everything planned out perfectly for this race weekend – flights booked, outfits planned, fastpasses at the ready – and then mother nature stepped in, and shouted “You know what New York needs? A snowstorm!”

Then just like that, I suddenly didn’t have a flight to Florida anymore – what?! I had booked flights for my parents and I on southwest. We like to fly out of the smaller airport on Long Island, MacArthur Airport in Islip, since it makes for a less stressful travel experience compared to LaGuardia and JFK, and I like that southwest usually has very affordable fares, with options to easily change flights if needed. We had even opted to purchase early bird check in, but 24 hours before our flight when I tried to pull up our boarding passes, I received an error message – and then about 30 seconds later I got an email that our flight was cancelled, due to an impending snow storm. Dang it winter!

This was on Wednesday morning, as I got ready for work. I pulled up the other available flights, and in a panic booked a flight for Wednesday at noon, figuring it would allow us to leave before the storm. The issue? I had not even begun packing, and I really needed to go to work that day to tie up loose ends before being out of office for almost a week. I called my dad, who talked me off the panic packing ledge that I had climbed onto, and we decided to rebook for a later flight on Thursday, as they storm was supposed to be over by then.

I spent the next 24 hours checking the weather and flight status obsessively, and while the weather got a little nasty during the day on Wednesday and that night, by the time Thursday rolled around the skies were clear, and our new flight was ready for departure. The downside to this later flight? I would be getting to the race expo later in the day, and unable to meet up with Kasey and her family when they headed to the expo, as they had fast passes in the afternoon, when I would be going.

By the time Mom, Dad, and I landed in florida, collected our luggage, picked up the rental car and got on the road to Disney it was rush hour in Orlando, and we got to sit in traffic as we made our way to the hotel – not how I had envisioned the first day of the trip going, but I was rolling with the punches as best as I could.

When we got to the hotel dad wanted to take a ride up to target to get supplies for the room – snacks, a coffee maker, and what not – but I was itching to get to the expo. It closed at 8, and it was already 6:00, and I wanted to have time to experience as much of the expo as possible. So Mom and I decided to take the bus from the hotel to the expo while dad made the supply run. We got lucky, and there was a bus waiting on the side of the hotel when we got there, and we were able to hop on right away.

Kasey, Aunt Karen and Hallie had already been to the expo earlier in the afternoon, and while I knew some of the merchandise that I had my eye on was already sold out, that didn’t stop me from searching for one of those damn tye-dye princess half spirit jerseys. Did I find one? No. Was I a little disappointed? Yes, but at the end of the day I really did not need to drop $70 on a shirt anyway.

Mom and I headed into the Visa center first, where the RunDisney official Merchandise was housed. We wandered through the aisles, checking out the various wares, and picking some items out. I really liked the color schemes and art styles that they used for the race this year, and was happy to spot Jasmine and Mulan on some merchandise. By the time I made it to the register my haul included a pair of Mulan jogger style, a fairy tale challenge jacket, a half marathon hat, a passholder shirt, a wine glass (that I later shattered) and a Tervis travel mug. Mom even picked out a few things, as she was walking the 5k with me the next morning, including a t-shirt, the same Mulan pants as mine, and a 5k headband. I got a lot of items, but the merch was so tempting this year that there were many more objects that I was a little bummed to be leaving behind.

Once we finished shopping we headed over to bib pickup, and got our numbers. We were there late enough in the day that this was a fast process as there weren’t too many runners around. I tried to get a few photos outside, but it was already getting dark so their quality was less than stellar. We walked over to the exhibition hall after, where the non-Disney vendors and race shirts are to pick up our shirts. There was no wait to get into that area of the expo either, although the show floor was a little crowded as we made our way to the back of the hall to pick up our shirts.

The expo was getting close to closing, so the only other stop that we managed to make was at the pandora booth, where they had a photo op. Mom any I got our photo taken, and then it was time to head back to the hotel and get our bags and outfits set up for the 5k the following morning. Her one race morning request? That I didn’t tell her how early we would be getting up.

Disney Marathon Weekend: Expo Day

By the time our alarms went off on Friday morning, Jennie had managed to join us in the hotel room, without waking anyone up - I guess we were all exhausted from travelling the day before. There were extra magic hours at the Magic Kingdom that morning, so we planned to start our day there, then head over the the expo, followed by a visit to Animal Kingdom. We only had two park days, so we wanted to make sure we made the most of our park time.

By the time everyone was ready to move it was almost 8:00, when the park was set to open, so we opted to call a Lyft instead of waiting for the bus - not something I usually do in Disney, but like I said before, it was a short trip. Standard Lyfts can’t drop off directly at the Magic Kingdom, so the driver took us to the ticket and transportation center, where we were able to hop on a monorail, that brought us to the park. A big benefit of arriving through the ticket and transportation center was we got to go through security there, where the line was much shorter than it is at the main park entrance.

Once we got into the Magic Kingdom and were scanned in for extra magic hours, we decided to make our way to seven dwarfs mine train, as Jude and Mike had never been on that ride. The posted wait time was 45 minutes, but luckily it was actually closer to a 20 minute wait. After the ride we headed over to tomorrow land, where we rode Space Mountain and Buzz Lightyears Space Ranger Spin. They were handing out stitch stickers as we entered the second ride, which Mike was particularly happy about, as Stitch is his favorite character. We had time for one more ride before breakfast, and since we were eating at Be Our Guest we decided to go on The Little Mermaid ride, since it was right next door.

Breakfast at Be Our Guest was wonderful, as always - there is good reason that I always make a stop there during my Disney trips! We checked in with the hostess, and were lead into the restaurant shortly after. We hadn’t pre-ordered our meals, so there was a bit of a wait to place our orders, but once we made it through that we were seated in the main ball room, and given our tray of pastries while we waited for our breakfast. The restaurant uses RFID technology associated with magicbands to know where you are seated, and soon enough our food had made its way to us. Mike and I both couldn’t choose between the open faced bacon and egg sandwich and the Croque Madame, so we each ordered one and split them. Both were delicious, but I think I preferred the bacon and egg sandwich just a tad more. I also made sure to have some of the pastries that they brought to the table - you have to carb up in the days leading up to a marathon, right?! Jude and I also made sure to remind Mike to drink lots of water, so he would be well hydrated for his first half the following day. Of course, the meal was finished off with a “Master’s Cupcake,” which is topped with the famous “grey stuff.”

After breakfast we made it onto The Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean, and then met up with my sister-in-law Liz, and her Boyfriend Bobby. Bobby works for disney, and Liz was in Florida visiting him during her school break, so I was happy we were able to find a little time to hang out. We wandered around magic kingdom a bit, taking in the sights, and eventually made our way over to the Dumbo ride, and then the people mover. Our last order of business before saying goodbye to the magic kingdom was a character meet and greet - Stitch! Since he is Mike’s favorite character and we had no way of knowing if he would be out on the half course, we wanted to make sure to pay him a visit at least one. It was a very fun character interaction, and we all left the park with smiles on our faces.

We parted ways with Liz and Bobby, and walked over to the contemporary to catch a bus to the expo. We got lucky, and one was off loading runners just as we got to the bus stop. I was excited to get to the expo, even though we didn’t spend as much time there as I usually like to. Our first stop was the RunDisney merch, since that building was closest to where we got dropped off. When we walked in they were offering free airbrush tattoos, so we all decided to get one. Minnie for me, Stitch for Mike, Mickey for Jude, and the Castle for Jennie. They came out super cute, and I loved that it lasted all weekend.

Then it was on to the merchandise - I tried to limit myself in how much I was buying, since I already own about 10 RunDisney jackets, and had purchased the pre-order jacket (did that make me want the mint green half-marathon jacket any less? No. But I somehow managed to resist the purchase). In addition to the pre-order jacket, I had pre-ordered the annual passholder pin. My other souvenirs included 2 wine glasses, a pint glass, the tervis water bottle (they had all of the distances written on them, and the cutest Mickey - I couldn’t resist!), two pins - the replica marathon medal and the goofy challenge event pin, and a tank top commemorating the marathon. I really loved the dooney and burke bag that they were offering, but couldn’t bring myself to spend so much money on a purse. Once we had finished our shopping, we made a quick stop for pretzels - fueling is key - and then Mike and Jennie watched with jealousy as Jude and I lived our best lives, enjoying every moment of our pretzels and their dipping sauces.

Since our priorities were in order and we had taken care of food needs, the next step was to get our race bibs… you know, the whole reason we had come to Florida and all. While I had thought about printing out the waivers at home, I had completely forgotten to actually get it done, so we had to print them out before going into bib pickup. Thankfully, RunDisney has plenty of printers set up as you enter the expo for this reason, and since we were at the expo on its third day, there wasn’t much of a wait to print.

Waivers in hand we headed onto the main floor, and it was quick work to pick up our bibs. I had to take the traditional RunDisney mug shot, since I was running the Goofy Challenge. They always take your photo that way they can confirm that the same person is running both events, to ensure that the challenge medals are really earned. We snapped a few photos, and then headed to get our race shirts. We had fastpasses, so we didn’t have too much time to check out the vendors, but I made sure to stop by the ProCompression booth, and to pick up some GoGoSqueeze, which they always hand out at the expo.

The next plan was to head to animal kingdom, but as we went to leave the expo I remembered that the parks don’t let you bring glass ware in, and I had purchased a few pieces at the expo. So, I took everyone’s expo spoils, and sent them along to the park while I headed back to the hotel to drop everything off. I took a Lyft back to the room, and there was a bit of traffic leaving the expo, but soon enough I was back at All-Star Movies, and got lucky with bus times - right as I got to the bus stop a Animal Kingdom bus pulled up, and I wound up being the only one taking a ride. I got to the park just as they were getting off Dinosaur, so I met them in dinorama area. We had a fastpass for Avatar Flight of passage, so we headed over to Pandora next. It was necessary to make a stop at Pongu Pongu to get drinks - non-alcoholic for me, as I try not to drink in the days leading up to a marathon, but I looked on enviously while Jennie enjoyed her night blossom. We took another cross-park journey for our next fast pass, this time heading to expedition everest. This was the first time Mike and Jude had ever ridden at night, and I could hear Mike’s exclamations though out the ride, and I couldn’t help but to laugh with joy as we all enjoyed the ride together.

By the time we got off of everest, we had about 45 minutes until park closing. So, we pulled up the disney app to check out wait times, and decided we were going to try to get onto primevil whirl and then nav’i river journey. We were closer to dino land so we headed there first, and had a quick wait to get on the ride. By the time we were done it was a quick walk over to pandora, and I may have scared Mike into skipping a bathroom stop for fear of not getting into the queue before the park closed - but we made it, entering at 7:59 when there was an 8:00 closing time. Lucky for us, it was a quick wait, about 15 minutes total from entering the queue to getting on the ride - very much worth the hustle. We made a quick bathroom stop before heading to the buses, and making our way back to the hotel.

When we got back to all star movies we headed to the food court for dinner, where I went for some pasta and an uncrustables sandwich, I also picked up a runners box for the next morning. The food court had a decent selection of options for runners, but I would have loved to see a build your own pasta station, as some of the resorts offer on race weekends.

Then it was time to head back to the room, and set ourselves up for the next morning’s half marathon.